Trump’s MAGA brand Is fading — and billionaires are paying David Ellison Donald Trump’s return to the White House sparked a rush among powerful figures to embrace MAGA politics. But 19 months into his second term, some of the billionaires, media bosses and conservative institutions that bet heavily on Trump’s political staying power are facing painful losses. The Trump gamble is starting to look expensive Atlantic writer David A. Graham argues that businesses and institutions once convinced MAGA represented a permanent political shift radically reshaped themselves to fit the movement. Some now appear to be discovering that the strategy brought neither the audience nor influence they expected. David Ellison’s Paramount empire is one of the clearest examples. After merging Skydance with Paramount, Ellison installed Bari Weiss at CBS News, betting that a more conservative direction could attract MAGA viewers while reviving the network’s struggling audience. CBS takes the hit as the audience refuses to follow Instead, Graham says 60 Minutes has lost staff while the Evening News has shed viewers. The attempt to create a more conservative mainstream news operation has so far struggled to satisfy either traditional CBS audiences or Trump’s supporters. Ellison then turned towards an even bigger prize — a proposed merger with Warner Bros. — while reportedly offering political changes at CNN. But the deal has run into fresh legal trouble, leaving the billionaire facing further uncertainty. The MAGA media machine is losing traffic The problems stretch far beyond CBS. Analysis cited by the New York Sun found nine of the ten largest right-wing websites suffered traffic declines between May 2025 and May 2026, while all 20 conservative outlets monitored by TheRighting recorded double-digit falls. The Daily Wire, Blaze and Federalist reportedly suffered traffic drops of 47%, 46% and 52% respectively. The Washington Free Beacon fell 38%, while the Daily Caller dropped 33%. Trump’s coalition is showing signs of strain The pressure is also reaching conservative institutions and politicians. The Heritage Foundation has undergone major internal upheaval, while some Republicans who remade themselves as staunch MAGA figures have discovered that moving further right can create its own political risks. The result is an increasingly uncomfortable question for those who bet on Trumpism as America’s permanent political future: what happens when the movement stops delivering the audience, influence and political rewards they expected? Trump isn’t cool anymore — and it’s costing these billionaires millions
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